Who is this guy who's telling us what to do? And should we trust him?
Ah, we've come upon quite the conundrum, Shmoopers. Because our speaker is shifty at best. He's rather demanding, and more than a little vague. And yet, for the most part, he sounds like he knows what he's talking about—like he's been here before.
Meet Our Speaker
Let's dig a bit deeper.
From the get-go, our speaker wants us along for the ride. And he seems to speak from experience. He knows the terrain (both literally and figuratively), and isn't afraid to give us the inside scoop:
The road there, if you'll let a guide direct you
Who only has at heart your getting lost,
May seem as if it should have been a quarry (8-10)
These lines tell us that the speaker wants us to share in his experience, but he's also keeping us at a distance. Sure, he's telling us what to do and where to go, but we're not sure he's coming with us. He might want us to find another guide—someone else to help us follow his directions.
This speaker is also entirely unafraid of getting lost. He encourages us to leave the road behind and set off into the forest, where we'll find babbling brooks and, as it turns out, ourselves.
One Last Question
Since our speaker seems to know so much about this place, we have to ask ourselves: is this his old homestead? Could be. To be honest, it's hard to know for sure. But we can say for sure that he's familiar with the place, and it's very important to him.